Eagles' Nick Foles doesn't feel pressured by last season's success

PHILADELPHIA -- Few quarterbacks in league history can boast the kind of statistical season that Eagles signal caller Nick Foles posted in 2013 and entering his first full season as the starter, the Arizona product doesn't feel the pressure to duplicate that production.

After passing for 27 touchdowns in the regular season and only two interceptions a year ago, Foles added two more scores in a playoff loss to the New Orleans Saints and finished the season with the highest passer rating in the NFL.

He threw for a league-record tying seven touchdowns against the Oakland Raiders last season.

But even after such a dominant performance and an off-season worth of critics calling for the 25-year-old to take a step back in 2014, Foles admits that he put last season behind him shortly after it ended.

"I don’t even think about it," Foles said in a round table discussion with the media earlier this spring. "I’m really hard on myself when it comes to practicing. I hate making an INT or a bad throw or something. I just learn to play the next play, so when it comes to the pressure or whatever it was that I did last year, I just know that I’ve got to continue to work, and work smart and work hard to give me an opportunity to play at a high level this coming season.

"I know I say it over and over again, but all those throws that happened last year, the TDs, whatever, it does absolutely nothing. It probably hurts me more now than it did last year because I did it, so now you’ve got to do it even better. In my mind, I want to do even better. But I know in reality some things can happen."

Last season's success elevates not only the expectations for Foles and this Eagles team heading into 2014, but it also put him in the company of the game's elite passers. Company that Foles says he is comfortable keeping.

"It felt natural," Foles said of spending time at the Pro Bowl alongside the elites of the NFL. "At the end of the day, those guys, they're mega-stars, but they're just guys. They're really just good guys.

"On the way back from the game, I sat next to Drew (Brees) and I've watched Drew since I was in high school, but we just had as normal a conversation as you would have with one of your buddies, just catching up, getting to know him a little more, talking about different things. It was just normal.

"I've known Andrew (Luck) since my sophomore year in college, so we developed a great friendship. And Cam (Newton), I met him once and then got to know him there. So it was cool just to see their personalities and just hang out with all those guys who were Pro Bowlers and they're just guys and we were just hanging out, which was really, really cool."

Still for Foles and his teammates, there is the matter of building on last season's success and taking a step forward in 2014 which could prove to be a pivotal season in terms of the quarterback's job security moving forward.

With two years remaining on his rookie deal, this off-season represents the first time the Eagles can talk about an extension under the collective bargaining agreement with Foles. True to form, Foles says that he is confident in himself and the offense designed by Chip Kelly to take care of itself.

"The thing I love about this offense," Foles said. "Is there's really an answer for every different situation. Now the big thing is execution. You might have an answer, but if you don't execute it, the play won't work or something bad happens.

"But that's what I love, is there's always an answer, there's always a reason. Different looks. I know where to go, it's just, can I make the throw? Can I move the pocket? Can we make that cut with the running back? Stuff like that. That's where execution comes in."